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OF  A 

Meeting  of  the  Mechanics,  Manufacturers,  and  Labouring  Men, 

OF  THE  SECOND  WARD  OF  THE  CITY  OF  NEW-YORK, 

ON  TIIK  SUBJECT  OF  THE 

REMOVAL  OF  THE  PUBLIC  DEPOSITES  FROM  THE  UNITED  STATES  BANK. 


At  a  numerous  meeting  of  Mechanics,  Manufacturers,  Labouring.men  and  others,  held  without  distinction  of  parties,  at 
the  Shakspeare  Hotel,  on  Friday  evening,  the  31st  of  January,  Edward  Rockwell  was  called  to  the  Chair,  Edward  T.  Back- 
house and  Charles  Colgate  were  appointed  Secretaries.  After  the  call  of  the  meeting  was  read,  on  motion  a  Committee  of 
three  was  appointed  to  retire  and  report  resolutions,  and  a  Memorial  to  Congress. 

The  following  resolutions  and  Memorial  were  reported,  and  after  full  discussion  were  unanimously  adopted. 
Resolved.  That  the  present  embarrassed  condition  of  our  business  concerns  in  this  City,  is  beyond  all  former  precedent 
within  our  experience;  that  from  an  exalted  state  of  prosperity,  in  a  few  weeks,  the  wide  wasting  sacrifices  have  plunged  many 
of  our  old,  experienced,  and  most  estimable  business  men,  into  Bankruptcy,  and  distress.  That  every  description  of  property 
is  rapidly  depreciating  ;  that  stocks  in  some  instances  have  fallen  50  per  cent ;  that  produce,  goods,  wares  and  merchandize,  and 
even  our  boasted  steady  priced  houses  and  lots,  have  yielded  to  the  pecuniary  pressure. 

Resolved.  That  the  removal  of  the  public  deposites  from  the  United  States  B  ink  is  the  cause.  We  would  as  soon  disbe- 
lieve  our  own  senses  as  to  deny  it.  A  tremor  in  pecuniary  confidence,  followed  the  first  hint  of  their  reriiov'al.  Tiie  fatal  blow 
was  felt  through  every  department  of  industry,  and  from  that  time,  until  the  present,  there  has  followed  a  succession  of  pecuni- 
ary-disappointments, Bankruptcy,  and  distress,  which  every  day  has  grown  more  and  more  appalling  ;  and  such  is  already  our 
condition,  that  with  the  growing  distrust,  we  scarcely  dare  look  to  the  future.  TI13  sacrifices  in  this  single  city  alone,  will 
soon,  if  not  already,  amount  to  more  than  the  whole  capital  of  the  United  States  Bank  ;  and  soon,  if  relief  is  withheld,  Manu- 
facturing, and  Mechanic  Industry,  must  be  brougiit  to  a  stand.  More  than  ten  thousand  of  our  citizons,  who  subsist  on  their 
labour,  must,  with  their  families,  be  reduced  to  beggary,  b-jfore  the  season  is  passed,  unless-a  remedy  is  applied. 

Resolved.  That  it  is  the  deliberate  sense  of  this  meetings  that  there  is  no  adequate  and  effectual  remedy  hut  in  restoring 
the  Public  Deposites.  That  the  State  Banks  have  not  such  a  hold  on  public  confidence,  as  can  enable  them  by  any  effort  in  their 
power,  to  administer  the  remedy.  That  it  can  only  be  effected  through  the  extended  pecuniary  org inization  of  the  United 
States  Bank,  and  that  every  day's  delay,  is  plunging  us  deeper,  and  deeper  in  distress. 

Resolved.  That  in  the  opinion  of  this  meeting,  the  public  deposites  ought  to  be  promptly  restored,  not  only  because  theii 
removal  was  inexpedient,  and  their  retention  from  the  United  States  Bank  is,  and  will  continue  to  be,  disastrous,  but  because 
their  removal  was  illegal.  We  find  nothing  in  the  charter  of  the  United  States  Bank,  nor  in  our  laws,  to  authorize  this  vi' '  mt 
act  on  the  part  of  President  Jackson  ;  nor  any  authority  whatever  to  empower  him  to  meddle  with  the  Bank,  except  by  means  uf  a 
scire.facias.  And  no  one  pretends  that  he  has  resorted  to  this  only  mean  which  the  law  has  provided  him  with.  The  Secretary 
of  the  Treasury,  the  only  officer  of  the  Government  who,  under  any  circumstances,  could  make  the  removal,  was  turned  out  be- 
cause he  would  not  do  it,  to  mate  room  for  one  whom  the  President  knew  would.  We  must  voluntarily  pormit  ourselves  to  be 
blinded,  if  we  hear  to  other  persuasions,  than  that  it  is  the  deliberate  act  of  President  Jackson.  We  should  he  unbelievers  hi  his 
own  declaration — "  I  take  the  responsibility." 

Resolved.  That  we  are  opposed  to  the  removal  of  the  deposites  from  the  United  States  Bank,  from  still  more  vital  conside- 
rations than  because  their  removal  has  been  accompanied  with  distress,  howevor  wide  pervading  and  intense — or  than  because  it 
was  in  the  widest  and  fullest  extent  inexpedient  or  illegal.  We  are  opposed  to  the  removal  of  the  deposites,  because  it  was  Un- 
constitutional. We  say  this  deliberately, — first,  because  we  find  no  such  authority  conferred  by  that  instrument.  We  saj-  it, 
because  the  Constitution  is  a  Rapublican  Constitution,  and  we  never  will  admit  that  any  Constitution  of  any  nation,  is  Republican 
if  one  ham  is  by  virtue  of  that  Constitution  commander-in-chief  of  the  army  and  navy,  and  at  the  same  time  can  control  the  mo. 
nies  belonging  to  the  nation.  We  therefore  unhesitatingly  say  that  when  President  Jackson  took  upon  himself  the  responsibility 
of  removing  and  controlling  the  public  deposites,  he  also  took  upon  himself  the  responsibility  of  violating  the  Constitution. 

Resolved.  That  we  believe  that  if  any  former  President  of  the  United  States  had  as  distinctly  assu  ned,  and  exercised  the 
same  power,  he  would  have  been  denounced  as  a  usurper,  and  a  tyrant  ;  and  we  believe  the  same  assumption  of  power,  which 
would  be  assumption,  and  tyranny,  in  any  former  or  future  President,  would  be  usurpation  and  tyranny  in  President  Jackson. 


Resolved.  That  wc  should  prove  recroant  to  the  memory  of  all  the  patriots  of  the  Revolution,  whose  blood  and  treasure  pur. 
(  ■used  our  freedom,  if  we  shrank  from  defending  from  violonco  the  groat  instrument  they  have  tnnsmittcd  to  us,  guaranteeing 
<.ur  liberties  ;  and  wc  should  disgrace  ourselves  in  the  eyes  of  each  other,  and  our  posterity,  if  we  should  entail  upon  them  a  tyrant 
under  the  name  of  a  Republican  President.  We  firmly  believe  that  the  powers  claimed,  and  which  have  been  exercised,  by  Presi- 
dent Jackson,  subject  our  liberties  to  ms  will.  From  that  Liberty  which  is  subject  to  the  will  of  one  man  both  on  our  own,  and 
our  children's  behalf,  we  pray  deliverance.    To  tho  laws  and  Constitution  only,  we  acknowledge  subjection. 

Resolved.  That  tho  only  remedy,  to  mend  tho  broken  Laws,  and  heal  the  wounded  Constitution,  and  insure  the  gradual 
but  certain  return  of  prosperity,  is  by  restoring  the  deposites  to  tho  United  States  Bank. 

Resolved.  That  we  hail  with  tho  most  enthusiastic  satisfaction  the  firm,  able  and  patriotic  efforts  of  the  Soutli  to  rescue 
our  liberties,  and  their  manly  detestation  of  partisan  vassalage.  We  exhort  them  to  hold  out  to  the  last,  against  the  daring 
efforts  of  intrigue,  bribery  and  power,  and  they  will  yet  save  the  Constitution,  and  earn  to  themselves  imperishable  honours. 

Resolved.  That  the  expression  of  approval  of  President  Jackson's  conduct,  by  public  meetings,  memorials,  &c,  from 
this  State,  in  relation  to  this  great  constitutional  question,  (if  question  it  can  be  called,)  is  the  effect  of  unwearied  perseveranco 
and  exertions  of  Office-holders,  and  Office-seekers,  and  those  whom  their  discipline  and  deception  control,  and  should  never  be 
regarded  as  tho  sense  of  the  free  people  of  this  State. 

Resolved.    That  we  highly  approve  of  the  independence  of  our  Representative  in  Congress,  Dudley  Selden,  Esq.  < 

Resolved.    That  the  other  Wards  of  the  City  be  earnestly  requested  to  call  similar  meetings. 


EDWARD  ROCKWELL,  Chair, 

EDWARD  T.  BACKHOUSE,  )    „         '  . 
CHARLES  COLGATE,  (  Secretaries. 


MEMOHIAL. 

To  the  Honourable  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives  of  the  United  States  in  Congress  assembled: 
The  Memorial  of  the  subscribers,  Manufacturers  and  Mechanics,  inhabitants  of  the  Second  Ward  of  the  Cit}'  of  New.York, 

RESPECTFULLY  SHEWETII  : 

That  from  some  sudden  and  widely  pervading  cause,  an  unprecedented  pressure  lias  fallen  on  all  the  various  brandies 
of  industry  in  which  your  Memorialists  are  engaged  :  That  our  banking  facilities  are  in  a  groat  measure  cut  off:  That  the  notes 
which  we  have  received  in  payment  for  our  labour,  that  on  former  occasions  were  readily  discounted  at  the  Banks,  to  enable  us 
to  make  our  ordinary  disbursements,  arc  thrown  out,  and  those  which  we  have  lodged  for  collection,  as  they  come  to  maturity,  are 
returned  to  us  unpaid  :  That  our  sales-  for  cash  are  almost  entirely  suspended  :  That  it  is  impossible  to  borrow  from  individuals 
without  the  most  extravagant  usury  ;  from  eighteen  to  fifty  per  cent,  per  annum,  and  for  short  periods  more  than  at  the 
rate  of  one  hundred  per  cent,  has  actually  been  paid  on  good  security  ;  and  your  Memorialists  can  bear  witness  that  every  species 
of  property  is  fast  declining  in  value  :  That  forced  sales  for  cash  are  attended  with  the  most  ruinous  sacrifices  :  That  in  such  a 
state  of  things  your  Memoralists  have  found  no  other  way  but  to  discharge  their  workmen  :  That  already  lull  two  thousand  labour, 
ing  Mechanics  and  Manufacturers  in  this  city  have  been  discharged  who  are  now  subsisting  on  the  remnant  of  former  earnings 
or  on  the  charity  of  the  community:  That  in  our  own  ward  full  thee  hundred  labouring  Mechanics  have  been  discharged  since  the 
pressure  commenced  :  That  on  a  fair  estimate,  should  there  be  no  relief,  more  than  ten  thousand  of  our  fellow  citizens,  willing  to 
labor  for  a  small  remuneration,  will  be  thrown  on  the  mercy  of  the  city  before  the  first  day  of  March  next. 

Your  Memorialists  believe  that  this  has  been  principally  caused  by  the  removal  of  the  deposites  from  the  United  States  Bank, 
because  the  embarrassments  and  distress  immediately  succeeded  that  measure.  A  want  of  confidence  was  at  once  felt,  andthis 
want  of  confidence  has  boen  constantly  increasing  as  the  evidences  of  the  effects  of  this  unfortunate  measure  have  been  developed 
Immense  amounts  are  becoming  due  from  individuals,  and  the  resources  of  country  and  city  are  almost  wholly  cut  oft". 

In  such  a  condition  of  things,  your  Memorialists  can  devise  no  other  mode  of  relief  but  from  your  honourable  bodies,  and 
they  see  no  other  through  your  instrumentality  but  by  restoring  the  deposites,  and  your  memorialists  confidently  believe  that  their 
restoration  would  be  attended  with  renewed  confidence  and  a  gradual  return  to  our  former  prosperous  and  happy  condition. 
But  should  adverse  counsels  prevail,  vast  numbers  of  the  most  enterprising,  deserving  and  flourishing  among  tho  constituents  of 
the  members  of  your  honourable  bodies  who,  when  your  present  Session  commenced,  were  in  prosperity,  on  your  return  home 
will  be  prostrated  in  tho  humiliations  and  misery  of  Bankruptcy;  and  your  memorialists  believe  the  seaching  influences  of  this  ill 
advised  measure  will  ere  that  time  have  reached  nearly  every  individual  in  city  and  country. 

Resolved.  That  the  foregoing  Memorial  be  signed  by  the  Chairman  and  Secretaries  of  this  meeting,  and  with  the  resolu. 
tions  be  published  and  forwarded  to  our  Senators  and  Representatives  in  Congress,  and  that  they  be  requested  U  lay  them  be- 
fore  Congress. 

EDWARD  ROCKWELL,  Chairman 


EDWARD  T.  BACKHOUSE, 
CHARLES  COLGATE, 


Secretaries. 


Avery  Architectural  and  Fine  Arts  Library 
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